The Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services has launched the innovative and critically needed prevention Be Present – a statewide multimedia campaign that educates and empowers peers, friends, classmates and siblings of at-risk youth to “step-up” and provide needed support. in Ohio addressing youth and young adult suicide.

The campaign that was created by youth, for youth, encourages young people to ‘Be Present” for others in need of mental and emotional support and focuses “upstream” on primary prevention and protective factors that can be put in place to support young people in their schools, homes and within their peer groups.

Providing Information to Access Support Services for Families with a Loved One with Special Needs - Locate doctors, dentists, therapists, financial planners and many other professionals that work with individuals with special needs. This site currently has information on over 1,200 providers in the Northeast Ohio area.

Guiding People Through Systems (GPS) is an online care notebook to help families, children, teens and adults with disabilities organize important medical and school records into one convenient, online resource.

ExtraCredit, the official blog of the Ohio Department of Education, offers commentary and insight on a wide range of education issues from department experts and guest bloggers from throughout Ohio’s schools and support organizations

Below is a short list of other resources to help parents learn about Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports :

The OSEP Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) provides parents with informational videos, research articles, and other training tools to help them better understand PBIS. These resources can be accessed at https://www.pbis.org/family.

Learning Heroes, in conjunction with The National Parent Teacher Association and Scholastic, have released "The Super 5," an interactive checklist designed to help parents foster a deeper understanding of what their child is learning at school and how to best assist them at any grade level. The checklist features nearly 20 links to resources focusing on a wide arrange of communications issues, including the best ways for parents to define what "success" is for their child in the upcoming school year; how to have a highly effective parent-teacher conversation; and, detailed information on the standardized tests in each state. The checklist also features guides for parents to identify if their child is being bullied at school, and to help them better understand the social challenges that their kids face as they grow up in a highly connected and tech-savvy world.

The checklist and guidelines also contain links to learning tools that are aligned to the curricula of specific grades in each state. The learning tools, also developed and compiled by Learning Heroes, don't just focus on mathematics and English language arts; there are also dozens of resources focusing on state-specific assessments, college-readiness measurements, along with the development of social and critical-thinking skills.

Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence
Advice from Parents Video Series

Listen and learn from parents and siblings as they share their thoughts and perspectives on living with and caring for a family member with autism. In a series of short videos, family members describe reactions to learning about their child's autism diagnosis, strategies that work in facing daily challenges, and "best advice" for families who are new to the autism journey.

This document/product/software was supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Department of Education,
Office of Special Education Programs, (Award #H173A160111, CFDA 84.173A, awarded to the Ohio Department
of Education). The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of the U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, and no official endorsement by the Department
should be inferred.